Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Sirach 47:2-11
Mark 6:14-29

Reflection:

Over the past two weeks, the Old Testament readings have been journeying with David.  We’ve seen him in his youthful days, through the adventures of his coming into power, his immense respect for the authority of the monarchy, his frustrations and struggles with Saul, all the way through to his assent to the thrown as king of Israel.  And the story didn’t stop there.  David’s gratitude for seeing God’s plan, past, present, and future honored and gave praise to God. His selfishness as he coveted Bathsheba and orchestrated the murder of her husband revealed the fragile side of the human person.  And his sorrow and anguish revealed his remorse and regret as he came to a greater awareness of his darker side.  

Today we conclude this journey with David.  Notice the style and authorship.   It is written more in a plural voice.  Is this not how the people of Israel remembered their great leader?  His greatness is not proclaimed by the king himself as much as it is by those who remember him.  It is an epic story.  It is a story which Hollywood has tried to convey and reproduce hundreds of times.  It is the story of a young boy rising through whatever life situations to become the hero.   It is today what millions of young boys dream of.  And before Hollywood existed which added numerous stories of the hero-journey to our viewing pleasure, this story would have been a primary story of inspiration to boys and young men for thousands of years.  For it is the story of moving from a young shepherd boy to gloriously remembered king.    

Today’s gospel plays out another kingly story.   And while it too has gone down in history, it certainly has never been a story of honor.  When Herod is celebrating his birthday and witnesses the young girl dancing he wants to give her something.  He even brings her into the conversation. "Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.   Even up to half of my kingdom"   On one level it appears that Herod is quite generous; except, do you know who the dancing girl is?  She is not a peasant girl or even an outsider.  She is the daughter of Herodias who is the wife of Herod. Mark doesn’t tell us her name he simply refers to her as "his own daughter".  Recall, Herodias was originally married to Herod’s brother Philip.  Many Jews were upset about this re-marriage.  In the Jewish mindset, it simply is not right for anyone to marry their brother’s wife while the first husband is still alive.  John the Baptist was outspoken about it to the point that Herod had him thrown in prison.   Mark tells us that Herodias, the wife, "harbored a grudge against him" on account of John the Baptist speaking against this unlawful union.  Mark also tells us that Herod the King, "feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man".  So the wife, Herodias, uses the opportunity of her daughter’s dance to play into her husband’s generosity to finish the job which her husband wouldn’t do.  Unlike the first reading this is NOT a story of glory.  This is a story which leaves the reader feeling shocked, being jolted by the tragic loss of such sacred life.  Even Herod, who was outside the Jewish tradition, saw John the Baptist as a man of God.   When we proclaim this gospel this morning there certainly won’t be any cheering. This is moral evil.

Mark cleverly sandwiches this account between the sending out of the twelve and their return.  This is missionary work.  They are asked to proclaim repentance, expel demons, anoint the sick, and cure people.   When they return they report back to Jesus, telling of their experiences.  Mark places the gospel of today between their departure and return as if to say something important about missionary life and evangelization.  And one of the truths is that if we authentically attempt to live the gospel, it will not win us votes in a popularity contest.   There are strong repercussions for speaking with the prophetic voice.   And we see this with John the Baptist, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Bold prophets tend to be hated by people who refuse to listen to the truth.  Lent and Holy Week will take us down this same path as we journey with our honorable king.  Let us pray that our ears will be open to hear it as we are called more deeply into the mission of evangelization.  

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is on the staff at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center, Citrus Heights, California.

Scripture:

1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12
Mark 6:1-13

Reflection:

A Disciple’s Love

As Jesus gathered the Apostles together and began to send them out to preach and heal, they must have been filled with both excitement and fear.  To preach repentance, to heal…with your only resources being your faith in Jesus, the clothes on your back, sandals and a walking stick…Wow!  And – it worked!  They drove out many demons, anointed the sick and cured them.  To be able to come back to Jesus and report what happened…

We share that same call in the 21^st century, to bring the Good News of Jesus to our world and its special needs.  No small task in a large and complex world, beset with all-too-many human tragedies!

Jesus missioned those early Apostles in a spirit of simplicity and focus.  Today’s call to Jesus’ mission comes to many of us in the midst of personal lives that are complex, cluttered, and most likely all-too-busy.  Our desktops, p.d.a.’s, and calendars are filled with all sorts of opportunities, commitments and challenges.  As we are sent out, our tendency is to carry along all our "baggage".

Perhaps…perhaps today’s Scripture encourages us to simplify and refocus our lives — just as David did with his son Solomon as death drew near.  Jesus’ Message is clear:  believe in Him and follow his example of all-inclusive, selfless, sacrificial love;  live as if today were the ultimate day of life on earth, and the gateway to the fulfillment of Life which is Heaven.  What needs to be set aside?  Jesus encourages only a walking stick and a pair of sandals.

Fellow disciples:  Let’s simplify, and take time for ourselves:  some peace & quiet in prayer, time for a personal retreat, the opportunity to see the sun rise or set in these frosty winter days, time to get back in touch with family and friends.  Let’s preach the Good News of Jesus — repentance, healing, love — by our lives, and use words if necessary!

 

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the local leader of the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Scripture:

2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17
Mark 6:1-6

Reflection:

If I want to follow Jesus and "accept" Him as the Will of the Father guiding my life, then I am willing to be treated like Him. The willingness to act upon His inspiration in our lives with creativity, courage, and determination in the face of our ordinariness will put us "out there" for judgement. When His contemporaries observe that he is just an ordinary man, "the carpenter," with a large extended family,he does not deny this. He is being judged through the lens of the ordinary life.  Mere humaness did not appear to be capable of great things, much less mighty deeds.  His inspiration "happens" through our humaness.  It is the "medium" through which salvation is offered to the world.  

Salvation is defined as an active grace freely given, (due to nothing we have achieved nor earned), which lifts the burden and pain due to sin and injustice from all people. Our salvation is actually lived out insofar as we actuallize those fruits of the spirit, joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  It is through our very humaness that our salvation is lived out.

 

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P. is president of Holy Family Cristo Rey High School, Birmingham, Alabama.

 

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Scripture:

Malachy 3:1-4
Psalm 24: 7, 8, 9, 10
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40 (alt., Luke 2:22-32)

 

Reflection:

Sometimes we struggle to understand how a day’s scripture reading might refer to me or to my life.  Nothing "jumps out" at us as we meditatively read over the scripture of the next day, in preparation for our Mass or Liturgy of the Hours.  Some days are just like that.

Yet there are other times that we find ourselves being "cuddled" by the scriptures; the examples, whether in the Jewish Scriptures or in the Christian Scriptures, which are used to describe God’s working in and among the people are examples that we can feel, taste, wear, and put our arms around.

Today’s feast of the Presentation of the Lord is like that for me.  In Simeon and Anna, I discover memories of my paternal grandmother and my maternal grandfather; the Gospel narrative brings these two people out of a 50 year old memory-space of my head and puts them squarely in the passages we share today.

Starting with Malachi’s first reading, we are reminded that fidelity is sometimes compromised even in serving our God, and that before fidelity can be restored, the refiner’s fire and the fuller’s lye–refining the precious metals, and "fulling" the newly woven cloth–will be applied as purification and renewal.

"Suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire."  In the light of his coming, the struggles and burdens of a lifetime will be lifted, their purpose will have been fulfilled.

My maternal grandfather, "Don Chon" was purified through years of manual and menial work; at various times he collected firewood in New Mexico to sell in Texas; he collected scrap metal in the hope that the market price would give him something with which to feed his three sons and one daughter.  As late as 1951, he was driving a horse cart through the neighborhoods of El Paso, Texas, selling fruits and vegetables.  His oldest son was killed fighting in New Guinea, a victim of the Second World War.  His wife left him to his scrapping in order to pursue the seductively bright lights of Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.  Yet, he never gave up on his conviction that he was in God’s hands, that he would not buckle under; he would continue to provide for his family until they were "on their way" in life.  His sense of fidelity was purified over and over, so that when my grandmother defeatedly came home from Juarez, he welcomed her into his little one-room stone house, with a dirt floor.

My paternal grandmother, "Chanita" was always an anomaly to me as a child (she lived with us until two years before her death when she needed a nursing home’s attention).  She was always praying, always dressed in black, and always going to church.  However the only people I knew who were always praying, always dressed in black, and always going to church were the Religious Sisters who taught us catechism and taught in the Catholic Schools.  I wondered why she hadn’t become a Sister…and I usually tried to hide from her about the time that she would gather us "little ones" for our daily rosary and litany.  Her purification came through the years of caring for her oldest child, Julia, who was born with cerebral palsy.  My father followed, and she had her hands full since her husband would not stay behind in El Paso, Texas, where good jobs were scarce.  He left for California, but she would not leave the only world that she knew, and in which there were family members whom she could call on.  She also was tested in the crucible of purifying desperation, but she knew that if she was faithful to God, God would not abandon her, though her husband might. 

Whether either my grandfather or my grandmother had ever reflected on the words of today’s second reading, they are words that gave substance to their faith in God, in Divine Providence, and in the purpose of their life-long fidelity to God: "Therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters….Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested."

By the time we come to the Gospel reading, my mind sees a hunched-over, shuffling Don Chon in the person of Simeon, and a prayerful, waiting Chanita in the person of Anna.  Two patient long-ers for the Lord; faithful in their aspirations; and constant in their "watching" for the Lord/Messiah. 

For Simeon and Anna both, there was the symbolic fulfillment of their watching as they recognize in the Divine Child the achievement of their lifetimes.  As they welcome the Child, their lives’ purpose is vindicated, and with purified and renewed spirits, they prepare to take their deserved rest.

Let us pray to be faithful watchers, in the face of every refining adversity, and to be confident that God will renew our faith when we most need it.

By the way, Don Chon died in 1970, in El Paso, Texas, six months after his grandson was ordained a Passionist Priest; Chanita died in 1960, at the very hour that her grandson was arriving at Union Station, Los Angeles, California, for a summer break from the Passionist Minor Seminary.  "Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine."  May they rest in peace.

 

Fr. Arturo Carrillo is the local leader of the Passionist Community in Houston, Texas. 

 

Scripture:

2 Samuel 15: 13-14, 30; 16:5-13
Psalm 3: 2-3. 4-5, 6-7
Mark 5: 1-20

 

 

Reflection:

Through the stories in the Book of Samuel, we have been reading and reflecting on how Yahweh gradually transformed the Hebrew people from a group of tribes into a Kingdom.

Today’s first reading tells of the report to David that the children of Israel have transferred their loyalty to Absalom and David’s fearful flight from Jerusalem. The reading brings to light the experience of paradox:  How to discern Yahweh’s (God’s) presence in the midst of political intrigue within relationships and ambitions. Our own life experience tells us that our family and community stories are tied up in ongoing growth though joys, sorrows, struggles, questions – all that arise as we experience in life that is often filled with contradictions. Understood in a faith sense, paradox is rooted in mystery, for paradox is the harmonization of conflicting experiences that in themselves seem irreconcilable, but that through another force acting upon them in critical moments, create a new or transformed reality.  We know that this force is God’s presence, God’s grace that transforms contradictions into paradox if we develop the ‘sight’ that would enable us to recognize and SEE at a deeper level… resulting in our cooperation, not our control.

Question:  Where do we experience paradox in our lives today and where/how is God transforming us through the experience?

In our Psalm response, we recognize that in our many difficulties and adversarieswe have words to pray: "Lord, rise up and save me."

Today’s Gospel tells the story of a "mad" man with unclean spirits who dwelt among the tombs in the territory of  the Gerasenes and meets Jesus and the disciples as they get out of their boat.  The unclean spirits in the man plead to be put into the herd of swine and as they enter them, the large herd rushes down the steep bank into the sea and drown.  Hearing the report, people throughout the countryside come to see what happened and they see the previously possessed man, now sitting clothed and in his right mind.  The native people were afraid and want him to leave their district, but he pleads to go with Jesus.  Instead Jesus tells him to "God home… tell his story…and the man went off and began to proclaim what Jesus had done for him and all were amazed. 

As we see Jesus in this story, we see his patience, respect and gentleness toward the sick man, He uses his power over the unclean spirits, and when the man, now cured wants to stay with Jesus, he sends him forth as a missionary-disciple to proclaim through the district what Jesus had done for him.  Jesus saw in him, not his mental illness, but one of God’s beloved children.

As we reflect on this gospel today, when have we been changed or healed by our encounter and relationship with Jesus?  Where and to whom are we called to go, live and tell the story!

 

Marcella Fabing, CSJ at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center, Citrus Heights, CA.

Scripture:

2 Samuel 12:1-7a, 10-17
Mark 4:35-41

Reflection:

One of the most famous statements concerning fear is the message President Franklin Roosevelt gave the nation in 1933, when the country was struggling with the Great Depression. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself– nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."  Those words carne from a man in a wheelchair.

In today’s gospel we see the apostles terrified. They were experiencing the angry sea and they feared death by drowning. When Jesus awoke he rebuked them for both their fear and their lack of faith. What was it that they didn’t believe? It seemed they lacked faith in how total and how absolute was God’s love for them.

They continued in that fear until the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost and enlightened them of the meaning of the Cross and Resurrection. They came to realize that God’s love is so profound that He had his only Son die on the cross for all people. And they understood that God’s power was so infinite that even death could not quench it.

Sigmund Freud said, "Now bold one gets when one is sure of being loved ."  Once the apostles were sure of God’s great love, they boldly went out to preach the gospel, in season and out of season. With courage they faced opposition, persecution and even death. They were no longer those frightened guys in the boat. They were converted from "retreat into advance."

The Russian philosopher, Nicolas Berdyaev said, "Fear is never a good counselor, and victory over fear is the first spiritual duty of a person."

If victory over fear is our first spiritual duty, then meditation on the passion of Christ is basic for a life of holiness.

 

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

 

Scripture:
Jeremiah 1: 4-5 ,17-19
1Corinthians 12: 31, 13: 4-13
Luke 4: 21-30

 

Reflection:

"…Love is patient, love is kind.  It is not jealous, it is not pompous…."

Not long ago, I happened to see a job description in the "help wanted" section of a newspaper that read: "The successful applicant will be a dynamic, intelligent, take-charge individual who is talented, experienced, and able to bring an innovative perspective to management.  Candidates must be creative thinkers, possessing independent judgment and leadership, outstanding relationship-building skills, analytical ability, and the vision required to challenge employees and to drive growth…"  I remember thinking, "these people must think God is looking for a job"!  Who else could fit all those requirements?

In today’s reading from St Paul to the Corinthians, we hear the job description for a Christian.  "Love is patient, love is kind, it is not pompous, jealous, rude, or quick-tempered…it bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

That job description is one that none of us is really qualified for.  If we were flipping through the "help wanted" section and saw a job description that said: "applicant must be patient, kind, not pompous, jealous, rude, or quick-tempered, most of us, if we’re real honest, would turn the page and keep looking.

I believe Paul is saying, "Listen to what Christ expects you to be and recognize that you cannot do it on your own."  Are you always patient? Are you completely free of envy or jealousy?  Do you have what it takes to endure all things?  Paul asks these impossible questions so that we will realize that we cannot do these things that Christ expects by ourselves.

The answer, St Paul tells us, is that the position has already been filled.  The Good News is that what we cannot do, God has already done in Christ.  God became human and through his birth, teaching, and miracles HE DOES WHAT WE CANNOT.  Through his care for the sick and poor, his love poured out in the Eucharist and on the Cross, HE DOES WHAT WE CANNOT.

Jesus is patient, kind, loving and forgiving.  He makes us fit to be his disciples.  And to do that, we need to become willing to surrender our lives to God who strengthens us. 

The Christian job description is about ETERNAL LIFE WITH GOD.  We begin that job here. We never become the manager. We are always interns, apprentices and trainees.  We have been hired not to lead but to follow, to imitate, and to pray that our earthly work of following Christ, may become an ETERNAL CAREER!

 

Deacon Brian Clements is a member of the retreat team at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, Calif. 

Scripture:

2 Samuel 7:18-19, 24-29
Mark 4:21-25

Reflection:
"Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket
or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus talks to his disciples about the importance of light. With today’s cities so filled with light, it is hard to imagine the ultra dark skies in Jesus’ time and the vital role of the lamp.  Our skies are seldom completely dark with the pervasiveness of light and its constant reflection in our civilization.   Perhaps you might have some idea of the darkness experienced by the Jews if you have ever gone camping in the wilderness.   Night skies lit only by stars, homes that were filled with darkness except for one or maybe two lamps–this was their world.   When the disciples heard Jesus’ words, the absurdity of hiding a lamp under a bushel basket or a bed would have been immediately apparent to them.  

As Christians, we accept that our Faith in Christ is our light, our guide in the darkness of this world.  And can we, as disciples of Christ, not see the absurdity of hiding our faith under a bushel basket?  It seems to me that we are being told rather to shout to the world of our faith in Christ.  We are called to live our Faith so that everyone who sees us will know how much we believe in Christ.  Jesus is telling us, "don’t hide your faith, live it so that the world will see it, so that all with whom you have contact will be touched by the Faith that guides your life!"

Today, we also remember the great Theologian, Saint and Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas.  Thomas Aquinas dedicated his life to thinking, speaking, writing and living his faith.  His greatest work, Summa Theologica, containing the very doctrines of our Faith, is a treatise on the existence of God, the Sacrifice of Christ and the role of humanity. It is accepted by Christians and non-Christians as one of the most important philosophical and theological works ever written. 

The life of St. Thomas Aquinas serves as a model for us, not only because of the words he put on paper, but also because he loved and embraced the Faith in all that he did. 

We should each ask ourselves, how does my life reflect my Faith? 

 

Mary Lou Butler ([email protected]) is currently serving as administrator of Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California.